The Real Value of Public Broadcasting

[Commentary] In the discussions about the future of federal funding, specifically Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) and Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) funding, there’s been nodding attention paid to its disproportionate impact on rural America. But little attention is paid to what that really means in practice.

Public broadcasting looks vastly different in the various communities it serves, and that is intentional. PBS and NPR are the best-known public media, but they are not its only incarnations. Public broadcasting is a vast network of 1,300 individual and independent stations, serving defined local areas, and answerable to their community’s unique needs. In an era of unchecked media consolidation that has made so much of our news and entertainment sound the same, public broadcasting still embraces its local roots and local voice.

Thirty-nine of those 1,300 stations are located on, and primarily serve, Native communities. Thirty-three more are waiting to be built. A centuries-long legacy of isolation and economic and cultural exploitation has kept Native people poor and powerless, but that is starting to change. Media have a vital role to play in supporting economic and community development, preserving and building cultural foundations, and encouraging political and civic engagement on tribal lands. The capacity of Native people to access, operate, produce, participate in and control our own media is critical to the future of the 565 Native Nations in this country who have long been invisible or misrepresented in media.

Mainstream commercial media coverage of Native communities is rare, so public radio is a vital resource on Native lands. If tribal stations go dark, as they likely will if funding is cut, a vital source of information in and out of Indian Country is lost. Where tribal newspapers are disappearing, basic 911 and emergency services still don't exist, and broadband penetration is at less than 10 percent, the picture is dire. Radio provides a lifeline to Native communities, one that cannot be replaced.

Native public radio is local radio. It reaches vast stretches of tribal lands that still hold pockets of villages and isolated homes. When trouble comes in the form of flash floods, wildfire, tornadoes or other matters of public safety, Native radio is the first and often only information source. And when there is occasion for celebration, Native radio links families, clans, and communities with news of births, marriages, school events and sports victories. Tribal governments, Indian Health services and others use Native radio to help inform, educate and mobilize their constituents. And these stations carry on the oral traditions of a cultural heritage centuries in existence, bringing a contemporary voice to Native languages.